I am writing a special blog today about tips for budgeting (yay the most exciting post yet!) I write this because hundreds of people (okay a couple) have asked me how do I manage to pay my bills and have a super glamorous everyone-envies social life? No really, I am typically the broke-est person anyone knows… if you think I am lying check my tax return that proves I made no more than $16k last year (no, you can’t really check my tax return).
I am no official expert, but I have learned some handy tricks along the way for taking a pathetic paycheck and making it into a not so pathetic existence (debatable?):
1) most obvious award goes to… plan ahead!
I ALWAYS plan out where my paycheck is going before I spend it – actually days before I even get paid. This makes payday a little less exciting and spontaneous, but I’ll pass on that thrill if it means I don’t get that “uh-oh I spent too much too fast” pit in my stomach feeling. Also when I plan out what is coming out of each paycheck I round my bills up and I round what I think my paycheck is worth (sans tax) down. That way I am rarely disappointed and most typically I am pleasantly surprised there is a little extra after all is said and done. If you don’t do this yet the way I would start is this: make a list of all your bills (and round up the dollar amounts) and which part of the month they are due. Also include what your savings and spending goals are. Then from there divvy is up when you are going to pay what, and when. For instance two of my biggest bills – my car payment and my rent are due at the very end of the month. I always pay my car one early so that my rent and car can come out of different paychecks – thus I don’t have one huge blow coming from one check, and even worse – false economic confidence with my first check J. Pay yourself spending and saving money the way you would a bill and try very hard to stick to those amounts! It’s okay to miscalculate and dip once in awhile but make it hard on yourself to dip into savings, otherwise you’ll never respect it as money you shouldn’t touch you’ll consider it money you’ll use when you blow your spending. Do your best to anticipate things like gas, grocery, etc when figuring this out as well!
2) don’t be afraid of your friendly bill collectors
Yes bills really blow and no, you are not the only one who thinks that. The people that enforce said bills, are probably not the nicest, most energetic people to talk to. That said, they aren’t going anywhere (also, give them a break – their job is to enforce big corporate profits on a minimum wage salary. I bet the headsets they use come out of their paycheck). If there is a bill that you just can’t pay until you get paid Friday and that’s 3 days after its due, just call and tell them that. You’d be surprised how many bill collectors just want to hear you intend to pay rather than really bumming that you can’t pay by the deadline. I have called to move many deadlines (can this be moved to be due the 16th of each month instead of the 14th? I get paid the 15th…) to be more compatible with what bills I want to pay when and it has always been no problem. Also a little tip – anger gets you nowhere with these guys, compliance-with-tears have gotten me a lot of perks 
3) lists-lists-lists
Kind of goes hand-in-hand with plan ahead but I thought I’d give list making its own shout out. I never go shopping just to go shopping. When its grocery, clothes, whatever I always go with a list, and with a spending figure in mind. Yes, when I load my cart I mentally do the math to be sure I am not going to faint at the checkout counter (again, round amounts up so you’re not disappointed!). It’s a pain but it works. That way if I pick up something not in the list I think long and hard about if I need it vs want it, how far it’s going to derail me from the amount I intended to spend, etc. Sometimes it’s worth it, but most of the time its not and I have thanked myself (not through shopping) later…
4) ca$h money is a lot harder to part with the a card swipe
When I go out to eat, go out to the bar, etc I always try to leave my card at home and bring as much cash as I intend on spending. If everyone is like me, I am a promotions marketers dream when it comes to happy hours, just one $1 off drink and I am really to blow my whole paycheck on keeping the pint glass full, even outside of designated happy hours. Not good. I usually bring a $20 that way not I do not have back up funds to spend more should I love the discounted calamari and want seconds. $20 and that’s it. I blow it, then I am walking, not cabbing it home. It also usually forces me to skip the late night snack on the way home, better for my wallet and my waist 
This tactic works anywhere you go and tend to overspend… the bar is just my example because that’s typically where the spending goes mildly overboard…
5) sacrifice
Listen, if you are reading this and thinking about what a pain it is to make lists, how you don’t like getting cash from the ATM… I get it. I TOTALLY get it. Ideally we’d all have amazing disposable incomes, could wine and dine every night of the week, shop daily, and bills could come directly out of our bank accounts with no fear of overdraft. The truth is, budgeting is hard but you’ll never get anywhere with saving money and building credit if you don’t do it. It’s like anything, if you fall off the wagon one month/paycheck/whatever you can get back on, the important thing is learning what budgeting works for you so you avoid really bad consequences in the future. I have been there… I ignored my student loan bills for over a year after graduation because I just didn’t want to deal with it (literally wouldn’t open the envelopes!) Now my loans are a lot more, my credit score reflects it, and the real bummer is if I would’ve taken a little time on the phone with the operator just to figure it out, it probably wouldn’t have escalated to all the negative consequences. You live, you learn, you write a preachy blog about it!
I have more specific suggestions on how to live a broke-but-happy lifestyle that I think I will save for another day as too avoid getting too boring (that hasn’t happened right?) Like most sequels it will be Summer’s most anticipated Blog-buster (see what I did there? Get it… instead of blockbuster?) …
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